(Newser)
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Twenty students linked to five Long Island high schools have been charged with being part of an SAT test-taking scam. They were accused of accepting payments to take the SAT and ACT college entrance exams posing as other students over the last three years. A principal at one of the high schools says he believes such cheating is pervasive throughout the system. “I think it’s widespread across the country,” he told the New York Times yesterday. Authorities, tipped off by rumors, began investigating after noticing widespread disparities between grades and test scores in the area. One of the first students arrested was accused of taking the SAT for six different students, including a girl, at a cost of up to $3,500 per test.

The students face a range of charges from felony counts of scheming to defraud to misdemeanors for falsifying business records and criminal impersonation. An attorney for one of the students argued that the situation should be handled by the schools, and not in the courts. “While no one condones cheating, we have a school system that is separate and apart from the criminal justice system, and we have that for good reason,” he said. But Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice disagrees, saying: "This is a crime. Make no mistake, as the system stands now, hard-working students are taking a back seat to the cheaters.”

Why is it relevant that one of the students was a girl? I feel like I'm missing something there. Girls are just as bad as boys when it comes to quality work in high school.

JoeQ

Nov 23, 2011 12:32 PM CST

There must be a fair number of kids out there who are afraid of the SAT but have $3500 laying around. Guess I missed my chance to make big bucks when I was a kid.

wwwonderer

Nov 23, 2011 10:12 AM CST

Welcome to America. You will get a lot further with bribes, nepotism, fraud and deceitful behavior than hard work. Who does this surprise? Let's put it in context. What percentage of high school graduates attended college: -In 1839 -In 1939 -In 1989 -In 2009 How many people practicing medicine had post-graduate college degrees in medicine in: -In 1839 -In 1939 -In 1989 -In 2009 My perspective: The illusion was that people did better because they went to college (or finished high school). This to me was the story told the share cropper of the 19th century and the destitute workers of the 1920s. "You have to do back-breaking work so you can earn a fraction of what the MORE educated person makes." This, I'm sure was told to the person that had to quit school to support their family. And there are many stories I hear of where people never finished the 7th grade. Never finished high school. Then after the depression, teen-aged high schoolers, who never had to really work to support their families, were told to go to college. Life will be better for you with a college degree. This was to be the great salvation of the middle class. The GOP focuses on government employees and welfare. But the middle class pinned their hopes on their children having MORE education than them, for sake of their future. Nowdays you'd be hard pressed to find the same percentage of 18-24 year-olds that didn't attend college. But the college experience is more about Home Coming and hanging at the Student Union, or on the 'Quad. Get you NCAA fix by attending a Division I school. Especially in the day of the Information Age. In the days of Socrates and Aristotle, one had to literally travel to the land where the library/information was. Not so much thanks to our friend the interwebs. 21st century citizens have access to a wealth of information. Which brings me to the point (finally). College, like many other socio-cultural environments is more about WHO you know than what you know. What percentage of women attending college from 1920 to 1950 majored in matrimony? Certainly not in every case. But I'm willing to bet you'll find more idiots that have family political connections that get them through life. And that in and of itself is not an issue. It really becomes an issue when you deny someone who is MORE qualified and dedicated. This is where the education bubble is coming from. The increased Credential Scope™. Soon you'll need a Bachelors to work art McDonald's. Why? Because so many people are coming out with Masters and PhDs that are getting the 'regular' paying job. If they are lucky it will be in their industry. Do the math. If you need 120 credit hours for a Baachelors degree, and those credit hours cost $300 per hour(in-state tution, of course), you will be paying $36,000 JUST to sit in a seat. No books. No room and board. No activity/lab fees. Add in everything else and you're probably looking @ $50K for four years at an average state school. And universities have no problem with that. They'll teach you ANYTHING, as long as you have you $200 per credit hour, $300 per credit hour, $400 per credit hour. Get a Masters in Kris Kringlism or take 12 hours of Red-nosed Rudolphology. As long as the check clears you're good. Now what will it do for you. How many job opportunities does one have with a MS in Rudolphology? I'm STILL waiting for someone to tell me what one can do with a Masters in Creationism, besides teach Creationism. That's what we see in OWS. People coming out of school owing tens of thousands and there are no jobs. Don't get me wrong. I believe intelligence is vital to a 'better' life, if nothing else than for the disposition. Your mind is ALWAYS your greatest asset. Because even if you own a bazillion guns, you will need to KNOW the information also known as FACTS (to the anti-science anti-education crowd) how to use them. In computer terms, you need a driver or extension or instructions to use anything on or with your 'machine'. Metaphor intended, as humans are the most complex computers around. Yes, you have drivers/extension for using your hand, teeth, lungs, urinary track, languages written and spoken, etc. But much of our education system is based on regurgitation of information moreso than synthesis of information -educators love the word synthesis. Our kids are being trained to honk certain horns and get a fish, lie a (trained) seal. Or stand on hind legs and let a TRAINER put it's head in the lion's mouth. But the idea that people with college degrees must be more intelligent or more capable is the social illusion. Many in our society love the illusion, the fantasy. It permeates every facet and every demographic. I write this not to criticize or judge, as much as I write this to bring awareness. To get some to wake up. To start a chain reaction that may get others to wake up. Rant over.